Anahuac's Artist turns out lights on Kirbyville 32-16

Published 8:14 am, Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Coming into Friday‚s contest with Anahauc, Kirbyville Coach Greg Neece knew the importance of starting off district play with a win. The Wildcats needed to put a win on the board as Neece knew that Newton was looming this coming week for the Wildcats.

Unfortunately, the Anahauc Panthers came to town and ruined Kirbyville's homecoming by rolling to a 32-16 victory over the Wildcats. Anahuac now stands at 1-0 in District 10-2A-1 play while Kirbyville fell to 0-1.

Anahauc ran up 517 total yards of offense to including a game-high rushing effort by Justin Artist to pave the way for the win. Artist finished the night with 290 yards against Kirbyville and has rushed for more than 700 yards on the season.

Early on, the Wildcats looked strong as they moved the ball down the field late in the first quarter. Kirbyville advanced to the Anahauc 15 but fumbled the ball away to thwart the drive and pass the momentum over to the Panthers.

Anahuac‚s Justin Artist was able to find the end zone on a 20-yard run with 1:14 left in the first quarter. With a two-point conversion, the Panthers held an 8-0 lead over Kirbyville. Artist would be a thorn in Kirbyville‚s side all night long as he finished the night with four touchdowns.

The Wildcats were able to bounce back in the second quarter to answer Anahuac‚s score. After a long touchdown was called back due to a penalty, the Wildcats stood up strong and still managed to find the end zone. Clayton Sexton did the scoring honors as he ran it in from 19 yards with 9:10 left in the second quarter.

After the two-point conversion failed, Anahauc held an 8-6 lead over the Wildcats.

But the Panthers came right back on its ensuing drive to find the end zone once again. This time, Artist scored from 30 yards out to give Anahauc a 14-6 lead over Kirbyville with 5:23 left in the second quarter.

Kirbyville answered Anahuac‚s score with a nice drive that ended up with a Rafael Briz 26-yard field goal at the 1:58 mark of the second quarter. The field goal cut the lead to 14-9 at the halftime break.

As the two teams came, the Wildcats saw Anahauc pad its lead on the first play from scrimmage. Artist again was the culprit as this time he rambled in from 86 yards out for a score. At the 11:41 mark of the third quarter, the Panthers held a 20-9 lead over Kirbyville.

Kirbyville drove the ball again after the long run but then the lights went out on the Wildcats. After an Anahauc interception, the lights went out at the stadium as the game was delayed during the outage.

The Panthers scored again when the lights were finally restored as Artist scored from 45 yards out for a 26-9 Anahuac lead at the 7:46 mark of the third quarter.

But Kirbyville was not ready to give up the game just yet.

Late in the third quarter, Sexton scored his second touchdown of the night when the senior scored from 11 yards out. With 4:57 left in the third quarter, Kirbyville trailed Anahuac 26-16 with an entire fourth quarter left to play.

But Anahauc padded its lead early in the fourth quarter when Wesley Smith scored from 12 yards out at the 11:48 mark of the final quarter to finish out the scoring.

Anahauc finished the 517 yards while Kirbyville accumulated 379 total offensive yards. The Panthers did most of their damage on the ground as the Panthers rushed for 469 yards on 42 carries.

For Kirbyville, Sexton led the Wildcats with 95 yards on eight carries while Quinto Jacko rushed for 80 yards on 13 carries. Sexton also hauled in five receptions for 88 yards. Kirbyville quarterback Kyle Henson hit 10-of-22 passes for 190 yards but also threw three interceptions on the night.

Kirbyville will travel to Newton this Friday to take on the Eagles in the second district contest of the year. Newton won last week against Warren.